At the 39th Annual Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, Professor Uwe Siebert received the SMDM Award for Distinguished Service and was inaugurated as 2017-2018 SMDM President.

SMDM seeks to improve the health of individuals and populations through systematic and integrated approaches to clinical decision making and health care policy formulation by connecting and educating researchers, providers, policy-makers and the public.

Professor John B. Wong (Tufts University, Boston), the Chair of the Awards Committee, presented the Distinguished Service Award to Uwe Siebert recognizing his exceptional efforts and leadership in advancing the scientific and educational activities of the Society.

During his acceptance speech, Professor Siebert said: "I am truly humbled and honored to receive this prestigious award. I see this award also as recognition for the many societal members who have influenced my path and helped shape my research and educational efforts."

During the same conference, outgoing President Angie Fagerlin (University of Utah, Salt Lake City) handed over the symbolic SMDM gavel to Uwe Siebert, as he becomes the 39th President of SMDM.

Speaking of his plans for SMDM during his presidency, he said: "I would like to combine our Society's expertise in analytical evaluation methods and patient-shared decision making to facilitate the translation of our research into useful information for patients, providers and policy makers."

To further pursue SMDM's goal to foster and promote international exchange and synergies between health care decision making scholars from different countries, he added: "Having lived and worked in South America, West Africa, Europe and North America, I also find it very important to expand our existing educational efforts by developing mobile and web-based educational programs to reach and meet those who are unable to attend our conferences and to learn from their experience."

UMIT Rector Professor Sabine Schindler expressed her congratulations: "This award recognizes Uwe Siebert's outstanding contribution to health decision science through his research, teaching and leadership service. We are proud that he will serve as President of SMDM and continue interdisciplinary activities to promote rational and evidence-based medical decision making."

Contact: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Uwe Siebert, MPH, MSc, Head of the Department for Public Health, Health Services Research and HTA, public-health@umit.at, +4350-8648-673930